1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for conferencing people located in a plurality of remote locations, and more particularly to a shared web browser for collaborating with multiple parties in an Internet-based conference.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In today's business world it is not uncommon for multiple parties to be simultaneously engaged in a meeting, while all the parties are not at the same location. Modern technology allows people to work together even though they may be located in different offices within a building complex, across town, across the state, across the country or even around the globe.
Typically, this can occur by means of a telephone conference call wherein numerous parties from these differing locations can be interconnected by means of the phone lines so that each party is able to simultaneously converse with the other parties, even though they are in separate locations. The call can either be initiated by one party who then calls all the other parties, or by a central operator, such as one employed by the telephone company, who then individually calls each party to bring them into the conference or “meeting”. By itself, phone conferences offer no way to present any visual data. Even if slides are electronically transmitted beforehand, such as by email, there can be no direct control over what the attendees are viewing at any given time, not to mention the hassles of attendees opening presentations with different versions of software, or not having the software at all.
If it is desired for the people in the individual locations to be able to see the people with whom they are “meeting”, a process known as video conferencing can also be available. In addition to the conference call which takes place over the phone lines, video capabilities are also provided. A video camera is positioned so as to view the persons attending the meeting at one location and transmits that image to monitors or televisions which are also available at each of the individual locations. However, it is required that a television monitor be provided for each of the different locations so that a party in one location can view all the people in the differing locations. Thus, for example, if people are meeting in four different locations in a video conferencing mode, each office must have three televisions so as to view all the people in each location. This adds to the complexity and cost of a traditional conference call and also requires numerous hardwiring and other infrastructure support in order to be able to accommodate the electronic equipment necessary for interconnecting the different locations. Video conferencing requires an enormous investment. The investment includes both money to acquire and maintain the expensive equipment (over $30,000 in most cases), and valuable time, because all attendees still have to congregate to locations with video conferencing equipment.
An advantage to the video conferencing method is that it allows visual presentations to be made to each of the participants, such as displaying documents, graphs and charts, which one of the parties may want all the other parties to view. However, it is again necessary that at least one of the meeting locations where the presentation is originating from provide the video equipment so as to transmit the images of the documents to the other locations, so that they may be able to view the presentation simultaneously during the meeting. While it may also be possible to send hard copies of each of these documents or presentations to the other locations, such as by mail or facsimile, such documents must be prepared well in advance, nor does this method allow for real-time updating of those documents during the course of the presentation.
In more recent years, the use of the Internet, or World Wide Web, has allowed people all over the world to access documents generally located in one location on the web, such as on a particular web server. A person in one state, for example, may log on to a website, which may have originated from a company across the country in another state, such that this person is able to obtain access to the information through the use of a personal computer and a telephone connection. All person needs to do is dial into an Internet service provider, such as American On-line®, Compuserve® or AT&T®, and access the particular website on the Internet through a web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer® or Netscape Navigator®. By entering search criteria while in any of these browsers, such as through a search engine on the web, for example, a person can access and find the website that contains that information on whatever topic the research was directed.
What is needed then is a more cost effective manner by which people from differing locations can interact during the course of a meeting so as to view and update documents in a real time basis.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a conferencing mechanism for people located at numerous locations to be brought together through one medium so that generally simultaneous interactive communications can take place during such a meeting.